This document announces a case competition hosted by Parrish Library at Purdue University. Teams are tasked with analyzing the cold cereal market and recommending strategies for Post Holdings to defend its market position against smaller brands. The timeline provides key dates for the competition: teams must submit a 10-20 slide PowerPoint presentation and 1-page executive summary by October 5th. The top three teams will present their solutions on October 9th, with the winning team announced at the end. Teams are instructed to research Post Holdings brands and the adult cereal market, and define a target segment along with an implementation plan for Post.

1. Parrish Library Case
Competition
CASE ANNOUNCEMENT SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

2. What is acasecompetition?
Competitive Problem Solving
Requires Presentation Skills, Analytics Skills, Teamwork

3. Timeline
Sept. 30
•Case Presentation. 6pm-7pm Case Announcement. Online. Attendance Not
Required. Recorded.
Oct. 5, 6
• Prepare 10-20 powerpoint slides, 1 page summary Monday 11:59pm
• Tuesday Oct. 6 Top Three Announced
Oct. 9
• 1pm-4:30pm Purdue
• Top Three Present, 1st, 2nd, 3rd announced
• Open to All- Come Watch

4. Timeline
September 30- Case Announcement 6-7pm
Top Three Announced Tuesday October 6
Monday, October 5- PowerPoint and Executive
Summary Due 11:59pm
◦ http://tinyurl.com/parrishcasedrop
Top Three Compete Friday, October 9, 1-5PM
Burton Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship
rm. 121
◦ First team: 1:30
◦ Second team: 2:30
◦ Third team: 3:30
◦ Awards: 4:30

5. Case- Breakfast of Champions
◦overall cereal market
is projected to be an
$11 billion market
◦cold cereal makes up
87% of the category.

6. Post Holdings
◦10% share of cold cereal in the United States.
◦flat sales (-0.6%) during the 52 weeks ending April 18,
2015.
◦experience declines among more healthy brands –
11.1% for Shredded Wheat and 9.3% for Grape Nuts –
Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles brands saw increases
of 12.6% and 6.1%, respectively.

7. Success of Healthy Brands
At the same time, the success of healthy
brands cannot be disputed in the market
◦ Nature’s Path sales rose from $70.2
million to $77.3 million during the 52-
week period, and
◦ KIND LLC saw sales of its Healthy Grains
granola clusters cereal increase from
$23.6 million to $41.5 million.
◦ Consumers’ increasing interest in
natural products coupled with the
desire to support smaller
manufacturers is driving this growth.
These smaller manufacturers are
cutting Post out of the market.

8. Success of Nostalgic and Millennial
Market

9. Your job
◦ Investigate the market for cold
cereals in the United States,
with specific emphasis on the
adult market.
◦ Also research Post Holdings,
getting to know the many
brands which Post owns.
◦ Come up with a
recommendation, using Post’s
brands

10. Your Job
What should Post do to defend their large
manufacturing position against smaller
brands? Should they embrace a specific
adult consumer segment? Your final
decision can include any brands within
Post’s holdings, not just cereal.

11. Your Presentation Should Include
◦ A defined target market (demographics, geography,
psychographics)
◦ Implementation/Action Plan
◦ Trend Analysis- What is working? What is failing?
◦ Processes or models that would help Post understand the market,
or suggest innovative solutions
◦ Explain how evaluated alternatives before reaching your final
recommendation
◦ What products or marketing tactics should they focus on first?
What concrete steps should they take?

12. Deliverables(1 of 2)
PowerPoint
◦ Labelled Teamname_presentation
◦ 10-20 slides for a 25 minute presentation
◦ Can include comments on each slide about what would be said at the point in the presentation
◦ Should include Works Cited, APA formatted, parenthetical citation on each slides
◦ Submit here:
Deliverables: submit here: http://tinyurl.com/parrishcasedrop

13. Deliverables(1 of 2)
Executive Summary (1 page) Each executive summary should:
◦ Labelled Teamname_execsummary
◦ Describe the problem, need or goal
◦ Describe the proposed solution and the desired outcome
◦ Explain how evaluated alternatives
◦ Summarize findings
◦ Does not need a separated Works Cited, can use parenthetical citation and cite things on the citation
slide of the PowerPoint
◦ Deliverables: submit here: http://tinyurl.com/parrishcasedrop

14. Business Information
Use a combination of library
resources and web resources.
Ask your librarian for places to
start.

15. You will be evaluated on the following:
◦Definition of the problem and key supplemental issues
◦Use of the business information in business decision
◦Overall Analysis (trends, process or models)
◦Evaluation of alternatives
◦Implementation/Action Plan
◦Presentation skills and PowerPoint clarity
◦Response to questions

16. The important stuff
◦Your PowerPoint and Executive
Summary due Monday, 11:59pm, here:
http://tinyurl.com/parrishcasedrop
◦ Additional questions? Ask them here: http://tinyurl.com/CrowdAskCase (will need to create account)
◦ Three out of the 16 teams will make it to the final. Don’t sweat it if you don’t make it this year.

17. Questions?
Ilana Stonebraker
stonebraker@purdue.edu
◦ Tinyurl.com/crowdaskcase
◦ Need to create an account using your edu email
◦ Select “Parrish Library Case Competition” as the
tag